Ecclesiastes · Bible in Basic English
Ecclesiastes 3 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business under the sun.
1 PARA todas las cosas hay sazón, y todo lo que se quiere debajo del cielo, [tiene su] tiempo:
2 A time for birth and a time for death; a time for planting and a time for uprooting;
2 Tiempo de nacer, y tiempo de morir; tiempo de plantar, y tiempo de arrancar lo plantado;
3 A time to put to death and a time to make well; a time for pulling down and a time for building up;
3 Tiempo de matar, y tiempo de curar; tiempo de destruir, y tiempo de edificar;
4 A time for weeping and a time for laughing; a time for sorrow and a time for dancing;
4 Tiempo de llorar, y tiempo de reir; tiempo de endechar, y tiempo de bailar;
5 A time to take stones away and a time to get stones together; a time for kissing and a time to keep from kissing;
5 Tiempo de esparcir las piedras, y tiempo de allegar las piedras; tiempo de abrazar, y tiempo de alejarse de abrazar;
6 A time for search and a time for loss; a time to keep and a time to give away;
6 Tiempo de agenciar, y tiempo de perder; tiempo de guardar, y tiempo de arrojar;
7 A time for undoing and a time for stitching; a time for keeping quiet and a time for talk;
7 Tiempo de romper, y tiempo de coser; tiempo de callar, y tiempo de hablar;
8 A time for love and a time for hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
8 Tiempo de amar, y tiempo de aborrecer; tiempo de guerra, y tiempo de paz.
9 What profit has the worker in the work which he does?
9 ¿Qué provecho tiene el que trabaja en lo que trabaja?
10 I saw the work which God has put on the sons of man.
10 Yo he visto el trabajo que Dios ha dado á los hijos de los hombres para que en él se ocupasen.
11 He has made everything right in its time; but he has made their hearts without knowledge, so that man is unable to see the works of God, from the first to the last.
11 Todo lo hizo hermoso en su tiempo: y aun el mundo dió en su corazón, de tal manera que no alcance el hombre la obra de Dios desde el principio hasta el cabo.
12 I am certain that there is nothing better for a man than to be glad, and to do good while life is in him.
12 Yo he conocido que no hay mejor para ellos, que alegrarse, y hacer bien en su vida:
13 And for every man to take food and drink, and have joy in all his work, is a reward from God.
13 Y también que es don de Dios que todo hombre coma y beba, y goce el bien de toda su labor.
14 I am certain that whatever God does will be for ever. No addition may be made to it, nothing may be taken from it; and God has done it so that man may be in fear before him.
14 He entendido que todo lo que Dios hace, eso será perpetuo: sobre aquello no se añadirá, ni de ello se disminuirá; y hácelo Dios, para que delante de él teman los hombres.
15 Whatever is has been before, and what is to be is now; because God makes search for the things which are past.
15 Aquello que fué, ya es: y lo que ha de ser, fué ya; y Dios restaura lo que pasó.
16 And again, I saw under the sun, in the place of the judges, that evil was there; and in the place of righteousness, that evil was there.
16 Vi más debajo del sol: en lugar del juicio, allí la impiedad; y en lugar de la justicia, allí la iniquidad.
17 I said in my heart, God will be judge of the good and of the bad; because a time for every purpose and for every work has been fixed by him.
17 Y dije yo en mi corazón: Al justo y al impío juzgará Dios; porque allí hay tiempo á todo lo que se quiere y sobre todo lo que se hace.
18 I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, so that God may put them to the test and that they may see themselves as beasts.
18 Dije en mi corazón, en orden á la condición de los hijos de los hombres, que Dios los probaría, para que así echaran de ver ellos mismos que son [semejantes] á las bestias.
19 Because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same. As is the death of one so is the death of the other, and all have one spirit. Man is not higher than the beasts; because all is to no purpose.
19 Porque el suceso de los hijos de los hombres, y el suceso del animal, el mismo suceso es: como mueren los unos, así mueren los otros; y una misma respiración tienen todos; ni tiene más el hombre que la bestia: porque todo es vanidad.
20 All go to one place, all are of the dust, and all will be turned to dust again.
20 Todo va á un lugar: todo es hecho del polvo, y todo se tornará en el mismo polvo.
21 Who is certain that the spirit of the sons of men goes up to heaven, or that the spirit of the beasts goes down to the earth?
21 ¿Quién sabe que el espíritu de los hijos de los hombres suba arriba, y que el espíritu del animal descienda debajo de la tierra?
22 So I saw that there is nothing better than for a man to have joy in his work — because that is his reward. Who will make him see what will come after him?
22 Así que he visto que no hay cosa mejor que alegrarse el hombre con lo que hiciere; porque esta es su parte: porque ¿quién lo llevará para que vea lo que ha de ser después de él?
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Ecclesiastes 3:17; Matthew 16:3; Ecclesiastes 8:5–6; Ecclesiastes 7:14; 2 Kings 5:26
- 2 Hebrews 9:27; Job 14:5; Matthew 15:13; Jeremiah 18:7–10; John 16:21
- 3 Hosea 6:1–2; 1 Samuel 2:6; Jeremiah 45:4; Jeremiah 31:28; Deuteronomy 32:39
- 4 Romans 12:15; Psalm 30:5; James 4:9; John 16:20–22; Psalm 126:1–2
- 5 2 Kings 3:25; Joshua 10:27; Joshua 4:3–9; Joel 2:16; 1 Samuel 21:4–5
- 6 Philippians 3:7–8; Luke 9:24–25; Mark 8:35–37; Matthew 16:25–26; Mark 10:28–30
- 7 Micah 7:5; Amos 5:13; Esther 4:13–14; Lamentations 3:28; Acts 4:20
- 8 Ephesians 5:25; Ephesians 5:28–29; Luke 14:26; 1 Kings 5:4; 2 Chronicles 19:2
- 9 Ecclesiastes 1:3; Proverbs 14:23; Ecclesiastes 5:16; Ecclesiastes 2:22–23; Matthew 16:26
- 10 Ecclesiastes 1:13–14; Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 2:26; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8
- 11 Romans 11:33; Romans 1:19–20; Job 11:7; Ecclesiastes 8:17; Job 5:9
- 12 Psalm 37:3; Ecclesiastes 3:22; 1 Timothy 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:15–16; Acts 20:35
- 13 Ecclesiastes 9:7; Ecclesiastes 2:24; Isaiah 65:21–23; Psalm 128:2; Ecclesiastes 5:18–20
- 14 James 1:17; Psalm 33:11; Romans 11:36; Acts 5:39; Proverbs 30:6
- 15 Ecclesiastes 1:9–10; Ecclesiastes 6:10
- 16 Ecclesiastes 4:1; Ecclesiastes 5:8; 1 Kings 21:9–21; Psalm 58:1–2; Acts 23:3
- 17 2 Corinthians 5:10; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Ecclesiastes 3:1; Matthew 16:27; Psalm 98:9
- 18 Psalm 73:22; Psalm 49:12; Hebrews 9:27; 2 Peter 2:12; Genesis 3:17–19
- 19 Psalm 49:12; Psalm 49:20; Job 14:10–12; Ecclesiastes 2:14; Psalm 89:47–48
- 20 Genesis 3:19; Job 34:15; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Numbers 27:13; Job 10:9–10
- 21 Ecclesiastes 12:7; John 14:3; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Luke 16:22–23; Philippians 1:23
- 22 Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 3:11–12; Ecclesiastes 8:7; Ecclesiastes 6:12; Ecclesiastes 10:14
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" or of beast, as in the book of Solomon, "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" or of that physical spirit which is called wind, for so the Psalmist calls it: …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time effected both of these, and your birth …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
As of even honey repletion and satiety, though it be of honey, produce vomiting; and, as Solomon says and I think, there is a time for every thing, and that which is good ceases to be good if it be not done in a good way; just as a flower is quite out of season in winter, and just as …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Or perhaps this was the time for silence spoken of by Solomon the wise. For, when life is buffeted by so fierce a storm that all the intelligence of those who are instructed in the word is filled with the deceit of false reasoning and confounded, like an eye filled with dust, when men are stunned by strange and awful …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
And, accordingly, if these last had been still alive at the advent of our Lord, when the time not of casting stones away but of gathering them together had come, they would have immediately made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)